met·a·mor·phose

Eleanor’s breathing was messy, her sobs leaving her breathless and hiccuping. The minute Gus’ hand slid into hers, her breath began to even out. It was a familiar comfort, something she’d cherished in the days they were together. He didn’t try to talk to her, or ask her what was wrong. It was likely he already knew. She’d never told him the details of what her father did, but she’d mentioned that Anderson Gunnolf had a bad temper, and how sometimes she felt very afraid. She pulled her face away from her coat, and faced the man. “Gus,” she said, a simple question of why he was there. Her voice cracked on the word. 

He offered her a soft smiled and shrugged, did matter what he was doing there, it was like destiny had put him on that street in that exact moment for a reason, and that reason was so he could be there with her “I had a work reunion near here and I thought why not see one of my favorite people” He extended the sleeves of his sweater and gently cleaned a tear on her cheek. “I could never be happy with you being sad, but I’m at least glad that I was here, I’m always happy to be here for you”

Gustavo had been working late that day, it was impossible not to walk near Eleanor’s work, he never really went there because he disliked his father quite a lot, but it was still hard not to pass by and se if he could spot Eleanor anywhere. Sadly the picture he saw was the woman he cared about sitting on a bench sobbing drinking from a bottle of vodka, he felt heartbroken and walked to her, sitting next to her, he said a simple hi, so she would know he was there and sat down next to her, holding her hand. He hated to see her this way, but he hated more that he couldn’t help her no matter how hard he tried.

An elbow makes it to his side, “Beso para arriba.” And then she smooches his cheek in a loving manner, before sitting her frame on a chair that aligned with his. “You’re much more than that, honey.” Her ending word was said in a tone similar to a mother admonishing their child, but then smile slithered on her features, a silly one at that. “¿Se ha reunido fans últimamente?”

He couldn’t help but to chuckled, it had taken him a few years to see this side of her, he smiled and nodded “I know, I’m your big brother” He winked at her before letting out a loud laughed “Fans, yo? Please, I have met more people that tell me radio sucks and have no idea who I am, people that actually listen to the last interview I made to Kendrick Lamar, oh have I told you about the craziest rock band you will ever hear? You will love this”

Delphine shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name. Does she have any songs I might know? I only know this song because it’s always on the radio,” she shrugged, making a face as if to say ‘I’m not a fan’. “You’ve caught my attention though, I’m all for female empowerment,” she laughed, propping her chin up in her palm. 

“Well, had been more into rock song, you know system of a down but she also had worked with Björk, Foo Fighters, Alanis Morrisette, Blur, R.E.M, even Johnny Cash, I’m not sure if you know any of them, they are 90′s things but well ” He chuckled and shrugged

“Oh Gus, It’s going to be epic!” Barra said in between laughs. “We get a wood stick and half of it we dirt it up with chocolate and then we pretend we’re fighting and I’m going to hit you with the stick and our poor little target will try to get the stick and his hands will get all dirty with chocolate, but he’ll think that it’s poop.” That was completely imature and childish but Barra was laughing and really in the mood for a stupid prank like that.

As Barra told him the plan, Gustavo realized how bad this idea was, but at least he would feel young again, he could always count with Barra to do that “This is such a bad idea. Okay fine, let’s do it, but why do you have to hit me?”

Now, if you look closely enough you can see the slight frown make it onto her features. It’s there because of the breaking hearts comment. Normally, such a fragment in a sentence would have a bubbly Serena poke fun back but this had her thinking of a heart which she’d recently wounded and only made her despise the harmless reputation. “Ah, you know I don’t mean to intentionally break a heart. Plus, no heart could ever replace you, minjo.” She said with a small smile, very minimal but ever so sweet. “Bueno, supongo.” Quite the opposite. “¿Y qué hay de ti?”

He smiled at Serena, she was right, is not common to break hearts intentionally, specially her, he knew down her tough look, she had a sweet heart. “I know, but it comes with the looks and awesomeness, that’s your cursed. See you always find a way to my heart” He chuckled “Todo bien, trabajando, a vecessientoque es como para lo unicoque soy bueno.”

“I’m awesome with names.” Barra giggled and friendly punched Gustavo in his arm. “This gave me an idea. The poop thing.” He laughed more openly now. “We are going to poop prank someone!”

He chuckled until he saw the typical look on his best friend eyes when he was thinking about something that usually was problem “I have a very bad feeling about this, but I also what to see what your wicked mind is thinking about exactly”

Barra raised a brow and glanced by the corner of his eye to Gustavo. “This is a monstrocity that should never had been done.” He scratched his chin and turned his head to the other warlock. “You’re not serious, are you? Blue and this…” He stopped and analyzed the color trying to give a name to it. “baby poo type of brown when babies eat pea soup with blood orange?!”

He was trying really hard to look at paint the best way he could, but Barra was right, this was lame, there was no color Blue, it was mostly orange and red-brownish, Gustavo just couldn’t help but to chuckled “Baby poo, now there's a good name”

“Gus! Didn’t notice it was you!” Barra smiled at his friend and agreed with a nod. “This is stupid.” He spoke with a soft but annoyed voice. “Seriously, why do people pay a lot of money for these abstracts strokes of brushes that are supposed to mean something?”

He chuckled “I guess sometimes it’s about the forms, maybe other about what makes you feels but this one... really wish I could understand it, I have no idea what that’s supposed to be, especially since the name is blue” He slowly turned his head to try to look from another angle “I’m seriously trying, but I have nothing, but hey the colors are very pretty.”

“Who’s saying we don’t want to get more involved? We’ve just now gotten to the spot where we can write more, direct more and actually get credit.. unless of course, it’s the Oscars but I’m so close to giving up on the Academy. But that school sounds cool, and really needed. More places like that need to open for a lot of the entertainment industries; I’d love to see more directors in film and stage, especially women of color.”

“People do that, they say that woman are just not interested, which it’s ridiculous. You know you could form a group and try to do something like that, I would be more than happy to help, I couldn’t open one because well it wouldn’t be the same thought of from women to women, but I’m truly thinking about opening a place where people can study, no matter, your gender, race, nationality or social class.” He smiled “Talking about that, how are your projects going with you?”

Barra blinks once. Two. Then, three times. He looks at the portrait in front of him, giving it another shot at trying to comprehend what he’s seeing, however the effect was still that he felt obtuse. For a brief moment he got irritated with himself, since the people that were there coming and going to the front of the image did exclameted “Ohs!” and “Ahs!” like it was supposed to mean something and he needed to understand that. “What do you think of this?” He asked to the person next to him, pointing directly to the front.

“I don’t really get it, I mean I have no idea why people do Oh and Ah! ” He shrugged

Not this again, people practically shoving terrible music down people’s throat. Charlotte rolled her eyes and scoffed. “What a waste of breath man…” She muttered before she took a sip of her beer.

He turned to look at the girl next to him “What is the part where there should be more female producers or the part that you don’t like what she had produced you know System of a Down, Tool, Björk?”

“BINGO, hermano.” There is an arm that extends outwardly, pulling him underneath and towards her chest where she ruffles up his hair before letting him loose. He was older, but she always seemed to act as seemingly though she were an older sister. “How’s my favorite? Mucho tiempo sin verte.”

He pouted, of course, he wasn’t really sad but he never missed the chance to make her think that he was hurt or sad so, he could break her tough look and take a little more love from her. He chuckled at her ruffling his hair “Lo se, lo se. I thought since you were out breaking hearts you no longer had time for me. I’m good tho, what about you? Como esta mi hermanita?”

All Caleb really wanted was his coffee, not a  three-minute speech on some sort of radical extremism, anti-capitalism, green conservationist who paints a world ideal only if society was led like native tribes or the Amish instead of actually using progress to their benefit. He did wear mass-produced clothes because he did not have the means, or the skills, to make his own suit, grow his cotton or silk and forge his own needles. The company he worked for was probably one of those which helped e-waste grow every year all with the intention of finding better ways in how to help fight global warming and reach a knowledge outside our very own atmosphere. “You can think like that and spend a thousand years trying to fight a way of living that will just not do, or you can actually use what we have know in our advantage, and research on better ways to further enhance our technologies to help our species survive this planet. For better or worse, we can’t control people and force them to have a change or heart, but we can plant trees and find viable ways to produce energy and find ways to involve communities in conservation programs. You can’t expect someone not to change their electronic devices constantly when technology keeps evolving. It requires less energy to charge. It lasts longer. With the change comes advances that make it more sustainable and less damaging. We’re all at fault, no one has a halo over their heads here. What do you do, again? Something with the radio, right? That needs computers and antennas, copper wires. People dumping money on cds or vinyl records which come on plastic or paper cases. If they don’t sell, artists don’t make music and you wouldn’t have a job.” Finally receiving his coffee, he placed the lids on and settled them safely on a carton tray before turning to the man. He wasn’t so much pissed at him but he was exhausted, he had real, immediate issues to deal with, and he just was in no mood to be lectured which then had him lecturing for no reason but wasting his time. “You may be right about blaming one particular class for doing this or that, but I’d rather focus on finding solutions and acting on them than pointing fingers. It’s easy to open your mouth and complain. Everyone can do that. That’s the easy part. But words are just words. Acts speak louder.”

“Eh, no, I actually think that can be changed in a matter of ten years, but there is no financial interest in doing it. Not a thousand years like you say, let’s face it you can put a robot on mars, but there is no way in making more durable phones, please, it’s not that they can’t do it, is that they don’t want to. Yes, that’s exactly why we have an eco-friendly station, and actually, people don’t really dump money on cds or vinyl records anymore, they do it on mp3 or streaming music, remember that’s what you told me you did, the time you said I was in a dying field of work, but anyway the people that own cds, cassettes and vinyls are the ones that want to own the material like a piece of art or memorabilia. So it’s very likely that they won’t dump them, o and for fun fact, some vinyls are made of old vinyls.” He smiled sarcastically at the guy “Actually, I was raised to make a difference, which makes me very thankfully everyday, but anyway just a piece of advice, next time you don’t want to make a conversation or listen to what someone else have to say on a matter, don’t interrupt them with the first thing that comes to your mind, because I was having a nice conversation about chill subject with the person behind me, when you got all intense about your version of what the world needs.”